


An Investigation Into The Recent Occurrences At Baltimore State Hospital For The Criminally Insane

by Chi-chi-chimaera (gestalt1)



Series: Hannibal Fic Collection [9]
Category: Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Cryptozoology, Dire Ravenstags, Epistolary, Gen, Horror Tropes, Implied Body Horror, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Nazis and the History Channel, People as Food
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-12
Packaged: 2018-01-21 23:16:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1567571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gestalt1/pseuds/Chi-chi-chimaera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This report contains classified information. To be filed under X. </p><p>(Or, in which Hannibal Lecter presents a Medical Mystery, and various Clues are provided to enable a conclusion to be drawn.)</p><p> </p><p>  <strike>Here be monsters.</strike></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wanted to do a mixed media fic. I hope you guys enjoy it.

_Taken from the recordings of Dr Frederick Chilton, MD, PhD, PsyD. Present are Dr Chilton and Barney Matthews, Senior Orderly._

FC: _(agitated)_ What do you mean there’s a problem with Hannibal Lecter? What _sort_ of problem?

BM: He’s not eating. Hasn’t been since he got here.

FC: It’s been three months – I think he’d be dead by now if that was the case. 

BM: Well he’s picking at the food; takes the meat, but that’s about it. The staff have been noting it down like they should, but the shifts don’t get the chance to talk to each other much save handover. Far as I can make out, most that got passed on was that he was a picky eater. 

FC: _(muttering)_ I can imagine. _(at normal volume, and sarcastically)_ So what, now he’s got scurvy? Beri-Beri? Has medical been involved?

BM: It’s strange. We noticed the problem at the general patient review when the notes were checked in more depth. But there hadn’t been any reason to suspect it. Lecter looks well enough although he’s thinner, but that wasn’t unexpected given the change in diet. Dr Josephs came down to take bloods and do a check-up, even weighed him, and he’s healthier than he has any damn right to be. 

FC: _(impatiently)_ Then it doesn’t seem to me that there’s any problem. Perhaps he just has a slow metabolism. 

BM: I’ll keep an eye on things all the same Dr Chilton. 

_Noise of moving chairs and footsteps indicate Mr Matthews leaving the room. Dr Chilton sighs._

FC: _(to himself)_ Who cares about the welfare of Hannibal the Cannibal anyway? Let him starve. It’s no more than he deserves. 

\----

 _In the Baltic country of Lithuania there is a very old saying recorded by a monk in the book of folk tales_ ‘Tunc De Populo’ _in the mid 1200s; ‘Hunt nothing which wears the night as a coat’. Brother Andrew Iustus, whose origins and provenance remain a mystery outside of this and several other tomes which have been resting in the archives of Tytuvenai Monastery since the 14th century, noted that the superstition of avoiding any animals that have a pure black pelt was a common one in the areas that he visited on his travels through the region. When questioned more closely about the reasoning behind this practise, the Lithuanian peasants told him of creatures they called_ plėšrus elnias, _the ravenous or wolflike stag. Such beasts were said to be feathered like a bird, black as the mouth of a cave, with antlers like sharp spears and jaws which would crumple metal and shatter wood. They would prey on men and women who went too deep into the forest, and had a particular fondness for hunters, luring them away, killing their dogs before doing the same to their masters and eating them after. These stags were both feared and worshiped, Iustus reports, leading occasionally to outcasts and criminals being staked out in the woods in a form of human sacrifice. In keeping with Christian tradition regarding pagan beliefs,_ Tunc De Populo _positions the_ plėšrus elnias _as creatures of the devil or perhaps demons taken on animal form. However it is not necessarily the case that these beings represented evil in the pagan Lithuanian tradition of the time. They share more in common with the animalistic wildness of nature spirits or the Gaelic Sidhe; capricious and not kind to mortals but not malicious if avoided. Symbolically they represent the parts of the physical world that at that time were poorly understood and uncontrolled by human action, encapsulating life and death, the cycle of nature. This is supported by stone carvings discovered buried outside the village of Betygala in 1998 (Urquhart et al.), which depict feathered stags devouring men beneath bare-branched trees, but when the leaves return, the creatures bring wild boar to feed the village, a clear parable for the deprivations of winter and the plenty of spring and summer.  
\- An excerpt from ‘Pagan Mythology of the Baltic Region’, 2003, C. Finch, Professor of Slavic Folklore, Oxford University_

\----

_Second extract from the recordings of Dr F. Chilton. Dr F. Chilton and Mr B. Matthews present._

FC: More problems with our star patient?

BM: Guess you already heard. 

FC: I’ve heard a lot of nonsense! Hannibal’s been getting inside their heads in that _way_ he has – he can make almost anything sound reasonable. I’ve experienced that much from him myself. He plays with people; that’s his pathology. Why, I imagine he _could_ convince the credulous that a trick of the light is something unnatural. There’s something unnatural about him, after all. 

BM: He’s been saying he wants to talk to you.

FC: I’m not _allowed_ to talk to him. Not after he framed me and arranged to have me shot. People seem to think I might get _ideas._ Still... (pause) what they don’t know won’t hurt them. Alright yes. Perhaps then he’ll stop all this posturing and manipulating.

\----

_Third extract. Dr F. Chilton and Dr H. Lecter present._

HL: Good evening Frederick. I’m glad to see you down here. Those scars from Miriam’s rather impulsive action have healed well. They possess the beauty of art, I must admit. Do you admire them every morning as you shave?

FC: _(snappish)_ You’d do better to be polite to me Hannibal. I’m only here because you asked for me, if you’ll recall. 

HL: It must have been such a blow when they decided that treating me would be a conflict of interest. Of course professional ethics has never been of great concern to you. 

FC: What is it, actually, that you _want_?

HL: I really must implore that you speak to your caterers Frederick. The food here is simply abysmal. 

FC: And what would meet your standards, precisely? Should we order you in a meal from a Michelin Star restaurant? Fine wine with your dinner? 

HL: One of your orderlies might do nicely.

_(Silence.)_

FC: _(angrily)_ Shoring up your insanity plea? No, don’t think you’re going to pull the wool over my eyes! I will get to the bottom of this, whatever game it is you think you’re playing. If you believe a pitiful attempt at a hunger strike and spooking a few of my employees is going to get you anywhere, you’re _sadly_ mistaken. 

HL: Oh, this isn’t hunger yet Frederick. I am well acquainted with the true meaning of starvation. You will know when I am _truly_ hungry. 

\----

_An interesting example of cross-cultural influence at this time is the appearance of the late-pagan feathered stag figure in French folktales, the earliest example of which is in a variation of the ‘Beasts of Gévaudan’, a similar mythologizing of historical events. In 1790 in the then-province of Orléanais a number of animal attacks were reported – hunters disappearing with only gnawed bones left to be found some days later. A local fisherman claimed to have seen the beast responsible from his boat on the river, describing it as a black stag which brought a man down and gnawed at his flesh like a wolf. The stag, he said, had a crest of feathers like a raven. He also attributed the arrival of the beast in France to a Lithuanian nobleman by the name of Robertus Lecter, who had bought property in the area; saying that like those men who can don the form of a wolf, this nobleman donned the skin of a devilish stag._

_Baron Lecter may indeed have brought the stag over from his native Lithuania in the shape of an idea. Judging from local records he was quite involved in the affairs of his new home and might have shared stories which caught the imagination of the locals. As to the fisherman, accusing a nobleman in this manner shows a certain prejudice towards outsiders hardly uncommon during this time, but it was not a wise move for a peasant to accuse his lord. The fisherman was arrested, and his fate after that remains unclear.  
\- An excerpt from ‘The Werewolf: Man and Monster’, 1990, L. Primeaux_

\----

_From the medical notes of H. Lecter, approximately one month prior to the incident:_

Presenting complaint: Patient suffering from widespread discolouration of the skin suggestive of bruising. No history of trauma or previous clotting disorders. Given recent history of malnutrition, most likely diagnosis is vitamin deficiency. 

Plan: Repeat bloods for a full coagulation screen, B12, folic acid. Patient must be carefully monitored for bleeding. IV vitamin K may be required, and should be kept at the orderly’s station. Meanwhile oral vitamin supplements will be given, or IM injections if the patient continues to refuse oral intake. 

_Excerpt from medical notes, three days later:_

PC: Patient now bleeding from gums. Bruising unchanged; areas of black discolouration persist. He continues to refuse oral intake apart from small amounts of protein. Noticeable loss of body fat on examination but as yet seemingly no breakdown of muscle tissue. Coag screen and platelets returned normal, ?lab error. 

Plan: Repeat bloods. We may have to consider force feeding either by NG tube or total parenteral nutrition until his psychiatrists can resolve the underlying issues with food. Sedation would be necessary, requiring a move to the hospital wing under high security arrangements. Patient is accepting vitamin supplements, but ?impaired absorption. Continue to monitor physical condition closely. 

\----

_You have to consider how keen the Nazis were on the paranormal. That whole business with the Spear of Longinus, the Thule Society, the pagan influences. Is it really so hard to believe they would go in for cryptozoology as well?_

_**Do you believe that was a key motivation behind Operation Barbarossa?** _

_Well, not a_ key _motivation. It was a side benefit, certainly. If you look at the historical record, there are tales about these particular cryptids going back centuries. In medieval times they were worshiped as spirits, confused with something mystical in the same way the rhino and the narwhal combined to become the unicorn. The fact that these stories have persisted up to the modern era though lends credence to the fact that they are a real creature of some kind, just not one currently known to science. But with that pagan connection, it does make sense that a couple of those battalions had more occult squads attached to them._

_**So let’s get back to the skull itself.** _

_Yeah, lets. A lot of people have tried to brush it off as a fake from the post-war years, but the more precise dating methods we have these days have put paid to that idea. It’s been analysed – it’s a real skull, real bone, real horn. You can see the teeth here... those don’t belong on any stag skull I’ve ever seen, but we can tell that they haven’t been artificially put into place. This is clearly a carnivorous species._

_**If it**_ is _so obvious, then why hasn’t mainstream science accepted it?_

_There was some interest, but for a long time this skull was in Soviet hands. Let’s just say they don’t entirely trust it – and I think they’re wrong about that. Not that it’s a uniform opinion by any means. But those that believe otherwise, also believe the species is extinct. There hasn’t been a sighting since before WWII, and we have only this one specimen to go on, which is a lot compared to say, many of the dinosaurs, but given that this has been shunted off into the disreputable world of cryptozoology, no-one is willing to put their career on the line to take a closer look.  
\- Excerpt from the History Channel series ‘Cryptids: Fact of Fiction’_


	2. Chapter 2

_Fourth extract from Dr Chilton’s recordings. Location: Medical Wing. Dr F Chilton and Dr Andrea Josephs present._

FC: Where is he? 

AJ: Where is who, Dr Chilton?

FC: Where is... where is _Hannibal Lecter_. I wasn’t aware we had _two_ patients with such _dramatic_ symptoms. 

AJ: Ah, yes. He’s been taken back to his cell. 

_(a momentary silence)_

FC: I wasn’t informed of this. _Why_ has he been taken back? What about this ‘medical mystery’ that had you so _enthused_?

AJ: He’s been taken back. There is nothing wrong with the patient. 

FC: That is _not_ what the orderlies have been telling me. 

AJ: He’s been taken back. There is nothing wrong with the patient.

FC: That... what? 

AJ: He’s been taken back. There is nothing wrong with the patient.

FC: _(he sounds as though he is afraid)_ Dr Josephs?

AJ: _(a pause)_ I’m sorry Dr Chilton, I think I must have blanked out for a moment there, I didn’t notice you come in. It’s been a long day. Is there something I can help you with? 

FC: _(still off-balance)_ Perhaps it’s... best if you don’t. I’m just... going to go.

\----

_Winters during the ‘Mini Ice Age’ stretching from roughly 1250-1850CE (there is argument over the most appropriate date to start this period) could be harsh for both humans and animals alike. In areas of Eastern Europe where large areas of forest remained untouched by much in the way of human influence, recent archaeological evidence has suggested that these times of hunger led to the creation of unusual wolf packs consisting of some fifteen to twenty individuals. Numbers of mated pairs and their young would be drawn to small settlements by the presence of cattle, sheep and other domesticated animals as an easy food source, and the sort of territorial behaviour that might have been expected was put aside in favour of a pack big enough to take on – and indeed take down – humans._

_Some experts in the field of animal behaviour remain sceptical of this theory, but as of yet no other explanation has been put forward to account for the Pagiriai massacre. This site was discovered only very recently in the fields outside what today is the small Lithuanian village of Pagiriai, by a local man who noticed the shadows of the buried structures on images from the Google satellites. When a team of archaeologists then excavated the area, they found the remains of a small hamlet and large numbers of human skeletons laid out seemingly at random, both inside and outside the houses. Carbon dating put their deaths around about the 1300s. This is close to the time of the known Great Famine of 1315-1317, and local records show a particularly severe winter during this period as well._

_The Pagiriai site revealed 106 bodies in total, although curiously none of them are children, all with markings on their bones which are congruent with the teeth of carnivorous animals, most likely those of large wolves. All of the remains show signs of being eaten in this manner, something which can only have been the work of a very large and very hungry pack working together. It is quite likely that starved as they too would have been, the villagers were unable to defend themselves. Any fleeing into the forest which we know surrounded the settlement at that time would not have made it very far.  
\- Excerpt from ‘The Little Freeze’, 2006, by Marjory Salian_

_\----_

_Fifth excerpt from the recordings of Dr F Chilton. Location: Orderly station near the cell of Dr H Lecter. Present are F Chilton and B Matthews._

BM: No-one’s willing to go down there since he came back from medical. No-one but me, and I’m sure not keen on it. Something wrong with the lights down there. It’s all dark in his cell and he keeps to the corners, so all I see is shadows and a shape. Maintenance have done their best, swapped out the fuses and the bulbs but as soon as they get the new one in it breaks again. It’s not natural.

FC: Hannibal Lecter _is_ a monster, but this isn’t a horror movie, and I don’t mean that _literally._ I’m sure there is some perfectly reasonable explanation for everything that’s happening here.

BM: I can tell you don’t believe that sir, and I don’t either. Now I have no particular strong belief in the supernatural, but I’m not fool enough not to believe what’s right in front of my eyes. That’s no human in that cage down there. I don’t know if he ever was. Maybe he just wore the shape of one like wearing a suit, or maybe this is something new, but either way, he is changing. 

FC: _(there is laughter, but it sounds forced)_ Are you trying to suggest we should call an exorcist? 

BM: Perhaps you ought to go and see for yourself, Doctor. He might talk to you, anyway. Silent, he’s been, least when I’m near. As I leave sometimes I think I hear something, but it’s not in English. Could be Lithuanian; that’s where he was born, but I don’t know what that’s meant to sound like. 

FC: _(nervous)_ Very well. I’m sure we’ll see there’s nothing _unnatural_ going on.

_Surveillance camera footage from outside Lecter’s cell is also available, but the quality is reduced by the lack of adequate lighting. Dr Chilton can be recognised coming into view by the presence of his cane. Mr Matthews is following him at a little distance._

FC: Hannibal. 

_Nothing can be heard. There is no sign of movement._

FC: Hannibal! _(He turns to Matthews.)_ He _was_ ill. Are you sure it might not have come back? I don’t want to see some sort of scandal in the papers – Lounds would love to spin some story about the Ripper dying because of malnutrition. Malpractice is just the sort of nonsense she’s very good at convincing others is the gospel truth.

_(A noise. More of a growl. Dr Chilton visibly startles and takes a step away from the bars of the cell.)_

HL: Frederick. Time is growing short for you. _(in Lithuanian, translated for this report) Here is the hunger of winter, but where is the smell of the snow?_ Where is that which is owed, Frederick, head of this village? _Where are the meat and the ropes? Where is the tithe for the god?_

FC: You aren’t _owed_ anything Hannibal. You owe a debt to society...

HL: Society owes its debt to _me_. I fed Baltimore and Baltimore fed me, and the pact was made. Now I am getting hungry Frederick. What happens next will no longer be under my control. 

FC: You can make all the threats you like. Clearly this is all the reaction to a loss of power. Locked in here where you belong, a kind of psychological emasculation...

_On the footage, a sudden rapid movement within the cell becomes a blur of pixels. A loud noise like metal on metal comes from the bars. Dr Chilton jerks backwards, almost falling. The resolution makes it difficult to tell, but his expression might be interpreted as terror. The camera is not good enough to pick out what he is seeing; only an indistinct shape, but it seems distorted, inhuman._

FC: Oh god. No, no, no, no, this isn’t... it can’t be... 

BM: _(indistinct, likely swearing)_

HL: I do not require a living sacrifice Frederick. I am not unreasonable. I merely advise you to act quickly. 

\----

_Lot 5543: Germanic tapestry, 6’x4’, c.1400s, exact provenance unknown. Well preserved, minor fading and damage to left lower corner. Depicts a scene of a hunter on foot with pack of dogs, trapping a black stag, which appears to have feathers, by means of a pit. In one hand he holds a knife, which he has drawn across his forearm to make a shallow wound. The symbolism of this piece is still unclear. Price on request._

_\----_

_Further video footage from outside Hannibal Lecter’s cell, with accompanying audio recordings taken from Dr F Chilton’s files. More surveillance footage has been put together into a coherent fashion from other parts of the BSHCI building._

_Movement is visible from inside the cell, but something appears to be affecting the camera itself, resulting in frequent distortion and pixilation of the image. Some effort has been made to clean this up after the fact, with only minimal effect. Then very suddenly there is a blur of movement, a very loud, metallic clang, and the bars of the cell deform outwards. This repeats, a dark shape hitting them over and over again as the metal continues to be warped by the impacts. The noise does not go unremarked. An orderly appears within the visual range of the camera, approaching very carefully with a taser in his hand._

_A final impact. The bars break loose from their moorings. Something that is not human darts forward and hits the orderly, smashing him to the floor. The distortions remain, and it cannot be fully visualised, but a still image taken at this point reveals absolutely black skin, a partial view of antlers, hind legs in the conformation of a deer or a satyr. It hunches over the man. Crunching is occasionally heard. It does not remain in place for long._

_It is possible to follow the progress of the creature through the corridors despite its speed, but it remains impossible to get a good picture of it due to the constant distortion of the camera images as it passes. Sometimes it proceeds on two legs, sometimes four. The forelimbs and torso appear to be humanoid, but the hands have long, grasping claws. When it encounters a person, they are quick to die. Each time it halts, to feed._

_For a reason which remains unclear, it makes no attempt to get into the cells of other patients at the hospital._

_Twelve staff members are killed, at which point the creature stops. As it has eaten, there has been some evidence of a change in its appearance, becoming something more like an animal than a human. It now begins to make its way back through the building, and the degree of image distortion lessens. The creature now has the shape of a stag, still the same dark black in colour, but sporting crests of feathers along its spine, at its ankles, and where its tail would be. Muscles slide under its skin and the sound of its hooves is a loud echoing tok in the corridors. It slips back inside its cell, into the shadows, and out of camera view._

_\----_

_A final excerpt from a recording outside H. Lecter’s cell. Dr F. Chilton and H. Lecter present._

FC: Twelve. Twelve dead. I don’t know what to do next. I can’t call the police, they’d never believe me. This is... this can’t be real. This can’t have happened. I feel like I’m losing my mind and... but, you’ve done things like this before, made people not able to trust what their senses are telling them. But... how could you? From in there? None of this is possible, none of this...

HL: This is an old truth Frederick. Perhaps next time you will intervene before things take their course.

FC: Next time? Next time! Why are you still _here_! 

HL: Because I was put here. Because I was caught in a hunter’s trap, by all the rules and laws of wit and craft. He could have chosen differently. He did not. He could still release me, but how might you persuade him to do that? 

FC: I... I could find him! I could go to him and... Jack Crawford will know where he is, he _has_ to. If I explain to him what happened here, what... But he’ll never believe me either. No, no no no what am I supposed to _do_?

HL: You have a few more months to make that decision Frederick. I suggest you choose wisely. 

\----

_Having analysed the information available, the recommendation of this investigation is to leave the being currently using the name of Hannibal Lecter in situ. Due to its unknown nature and its reasons for remaining in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, moving it to another location for further study might provoke it to another violent outburst, and containment cannot be guaranteed. Instead we suggest replacing the current medical doctor with our own operative, and continue to observe the creature by this means. Assistance might also be given to the Director of the hospital, Dr Frederick Chilton, with respects the acquisition of human remains to keep the creature placid for the time being._

_\----_

_REPORT RECIEVED. RECOMMENDATIONS APPROVED. SITUATION WILL BE MONITORED FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS._


End file.
